You got that??? (Photo: flickr.com/jamiesrabbits)

Oh the times, oh the customs! These days, with every Tom Dick and Harry CEO maintaining a Twitter account and public Facebook page, it's easier than ever to violate the S.E.C.'s rules about where you can disclose key information so all your shareholders see it. That's already gotten Netflix CEO Reed Hastings into a little trouble (not that his example stopped rogue Tesla CEO and would-be Martian Elon Musk).

Well today the S.E.C. announced that it's a-okay to announce "key information" (like sales figures) via social media, "so long as investors have been alerted about which social media will be used to disseminate such information."

So, to clarify:

“One set of shareholders should not be able to get a jump on other shareholders just because the company is selectively disclosing important information,” said George Canellos, Acting Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Most social media are perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors, but not if the access is restricted or if investors don’t know that’s where they need to turn to get the latest news.”

In other words, an announcement from the company's designated Twitter feed is fine, but no random personal Facebook updates, even if you have a quarter of a million subscribers. Okay, Reed? Think you can handle that?

(h/t Anthony De Rosa)

Six months after raising $4.7 million and less than three weeks after founder and CEO Jody Sherman committed suicide, Ecomom is liquidating. [PandoDaily]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk got around to publishing the data he promised would show that a New York Times review of his company's electric Model S sedan was a "fake": "We were played for a fool and as a result, let down the cause of electric vehicles." [Tesla]

Times' reporter John M. Broder answered Mr. Musk's post point-for-point, reiterating that he followed the instructions of Tesla employees throughout his test drive.  [NYT]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: "House of Cards now the #1 most popular TV show in the world, according to IMDb. And I still can't get (Neftlix Chief Content Officer) Ted Sarandos to tell me how many millions are enjoying it on Netflix." [Facebook]

President Barack Obama hosted a Google+ Hangout. [Daily Dot]

Stop calling it the Harlem Shake. Just stop, really. [Gawker]

A meteorite struck Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring 400 people. [Mashable]

(Screencap: Facebook)

GQ just published an in-depth feature on Reed Hastings, the endearingly gaffe-prone (RIP Qwikster) Netflix CEO. With a slew of original programming coming to the platform--including a new Netflix exclusive season of Arrested Development--Mr. Hastings is working diligently to turn the video streaming service into a true HBO competitor.

That's all well and good, but Mr. Hastings has other worries on his mind: mainly, why did GQ scrap his photo spread? (No doubt the shoot would've given the Terry Richardson-Beyonce collab a run for its money.)

"When GQ does a feature on you, but they cut the photos of you, is that a message?" lamented the modest CEO on Facebook.

Luckily, storied venture capitalist Marc Andreessen had a similar tale to help comfort Mr. Hastings.

"I once had a GQ photographer talk me into a photo where I was wearing a Netscape company T-shirt backwards," he commented. "Then they made fun of me in the article for being unfashionable."

"So I just switched to getting all my fashion tips from PC Magazine," Mr. Andreessen continued.

At least Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Hastings can comfort themselves with the fact that they're both bajillionaires.

As Dan Primack reports, Mr. Musk went on Twitter last Monday to crow that the electric car company notched positive cash flow in the previous week, then defended the disclosure in an appearance on CNBC yesterday (you can see it after the 9 minute mark here):

... it's done after hours and you follow up with investors and you do multiple channels, which is what we did, it wasn't just a Tweet—maybe people aren't aware of that—I don't think there is any selective distribution of information. I think that would be a bit of an inaccurate mischaracterization.

That news followed word last week that the SEC was investigating Netflix after CEO Reed Hastings took to Facebook in early July to brag that the company's customers had viewed more than 1 billion hours of content in June.

At issue in these social media disclosures is whether the companies are violating Regulation Full Disclosure, or Reg FD, which requires public companies to make material information available to all investors at the same time.

Typically, that means issuing a press release and filing documents with the SEC. But as companies increasingly use social media to communicate with the public—Mr. Musk has more than 115,000 Twitter followers, Mr. Hastings has more than 246,000 subscribers to his Facebook page—websites such as Twitter and Facebook may be seen as viable means of putting information in the hands of investors.

For their parts, neither CEO has gone so far as to argue that social media alone is enough to meet the threshold for full and fair disclosure under Reg FD. In a Facebook post following disclosure of the SEC's investigation into Netflix, Mr. Hastings argued that his customers' viewing hours doesn't constitute material information.

And Mr. Musk, of course, claimed that Tesla used multiple channels to share its cash flow news, though it's worth noting that when Mr. Primack pressed the company on what those other channels were, a Tesla spokeswoman had no comment.

Those explanations aside, it’s hard to think that either CEO or their corporate minders are so naive to think that their respective disclosures wouldn’t raise hackles at the securities regulator. In fact, it's starting to feel like tech CEOS are trying to force the issue. Social media is how we communicate, they seem to be saying, and the SEC should just deal with it.

Because you're dying to make "eggnog cinnamon chip scones," just like Randi Zuckerberg's family. [NYT]

Amid news that Apple plans to invest $100 million in U.S. manufacturing plants, here's a video of the assembly line at NeXT Computer, the company Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after being exiled from Apple. [Qz]

John McAfee is back in a Guatemalan jail, after being hospitalized for an apparent heart attack. [ABC]

Online school Thinkful says "finance sucks" and that the 11,000 Citigroup workers about to be axed should seek work at a New York City startup. [TechCrunch]

Aw Sookie Sookie now.

CEO Reed Hastings has long-tried to maintain that Netflix is not, in fact,  a nefarious plot to destroy the cable companies, but rather a "complementary" service that will leave cords to cable companies neatly intact. Whether or not Mr. Hastings is being sincere about Netflix's end goal, it looks like that's how it's playing out for now.  Using last night's True Blood premiere as bait, HBO saw its 3 millionth download of the HBO Go mobile app (for the iPad, iPhone, and Android) this weekend. The app, a direct competitor to Netflix, can be accessed for free by paying HBO cable customers.  Considering that there are 28 million HBO subscribers around the country, that means about 10 percent have tried out the app just since it premiered on May 2nd.

Time Warner and Cablevision customers in New York City still have to wait for the city's largest cable service providers to close the deal. (And deal with their Soviet-style customer service.) But the New York Post reports that talks are underway.

Unlike Netflix, which has had to decrease its offerings as studios and TV networks jack up the price and wait times, or Hulu Plus which "skimps on the number of back episodes" from popular shows, HBO's mobile app is going whole hog--screening next week's episode of True Blood directly after last night's premiere and offering more than 1,4000 episodes from shows like The Wire, Game of Thrones, and Sex and the City.  Three million is nowhere near Netflix's 23 million subscribers. But we have a feeling that HBO's decision not to let Netflix stream even one episode of those shows instantly could end up evening the odds.